Auction 35
Lot 144:
Letter handwritten and signed by Rabbi Haim Ozer Grodzinsky, addressed to Rabbi Yaakov HaKohen Yafeh of Manchester, in which he answers the latter’s question regarding the appointment of a certain teacher, and he says that he does not known him but saw warm recommendations from other well-known rebbeim and that they could be trusted and to appoint him. Later he remarks: “of course two works, Achiezer (the section of the Even HaEzer), arrived which I sent…to be sure please acknowledge that you received them”. At the end he blesses the recipient. Size: 20.5x25cm. Tears in the margins, no damage to text. Folds, overall good condition.
Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky [1863-1940], foremost scholar of his generation and leader of world Jewry, studied in the Volozhin yeshiva with the Gaon Rabbi Haim of Brisk. In 1885 he was appointed Rabbi of Vilna (despite never being officially appointed as there was no official Rabbi of Vilna since the death of the Vilna Gaon, out of respect for him), president of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah and author of the book of responsa Achiezer, considered the leader of Lithuanian ultra-orthodox Jewry at the time in which great rabbis such as the Chafetz Chaim and Rabbi Chaim of Brisk lived, and the Chafetz Chaim even used to refer to him as the "President of the Jewish People".
Rabbi Yisrael Yaakov HaKohen Yafeh (1874-1934) was the son of Rabbi Avraham and grandson of Rabbi Azriel HaKohen Volk (his father changed his name to Yafeh in order to prevent his draft into the military). He was son-in-law of Rabbi Aba Yaakov Borochov, the Chevel Yaakov. He was a student of the Telz and Slobodka yeshivot and was nicknamed the Ilui of Vilkomir. He was a student of the Rabbi Haim Yehuda Leib Sosnitzer of Samargon, Rabbi Yonatan Eliashberg of Volkobisk, and of his uncle Rabbi Menachem Mendel Volk of Volkobisk. He graduated from the Kovna Kollel and was appointed rabbi in Manchester in 1897 and founded a yeshiva there. He was a member of the Mizrahi movement and participated in the Zionist Congress. He wrote “Knesset Yisrael”, “Hadarat Yisrael”, and more. He died in Egypt while on his way to Israel.
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